This is the report that is dominating the news coverage of yesterday's protest at the Capitol. I have no idea who was the source of any saliva and nasty words, but it's important to realize how easy it is for someone who isn't typical of the group or who is even its adversary to do things like this. It's one of the oldest dirty tricks.

It's also important to distinguish "angry protesters" from particular individuals who cross the line into the kind real ugliness or violence that should be condemned. There's nothing wrong with showing anger at the thing that motivates you to protest. That's what protests are for! The members of Congress have a lot of power, and they ought to have to hear the anger their exercise of that power is causing. It's outrageous for them to pose as victims without very good cause. So what if some idiot said a bad word? That's a trivial distraction compared to the power they are about to exercise in the face of such strong opposition to what they are about to do. [ADDED: I'm not approving of ugly epithets, just emphasizing the comparison between an individual ordinary citizen, who might not be very sane/smart/educated, and a member of Congress, who wields great power. The member of Congress should not pretend he's weak, when he is in fact strong. It's also exceedingly lame — and, frankly, racist — for white people to be so quick to think of powerful black politicians as vulnerable and besieged. I assume the black politicians laugh at them in private. The willingness of black politicians to make power moves in racial terms suggests to me that they know exactly what they are doing: leveraging patronization.]

From what I heard — from Meade, who was there — the people at yesterday's protest were unusually nice and friendly and well-behaved. Still, the Washington Post uses the term "angry protesters." That's a journalistic device to delegitimitize the demonstration by merging everyone into the few persons who said something racist/homophobic. That's not fair and it's not accurate, but it has been the stock MSM treatment of the Tea Party movement all along.

ADDED: Here's the video I'm seeing. Is there any more video than this?

Because what you hear there is: 1. Booing, and 2. the chant "Kill the bill." Playing the race card for nothing? Shame!

ADDED: A member of Congress said he was spit on? Guards were right there. Was no one detained? Show me the person who was arrested. Otherwise, I'm assuming it's a lie.
UPDATE:

Tea Party protesters [say] they never heard racially charged language in the crowd. The man detained for allegedly spitting at Cleaver was also let go after, according to Capitol Police, Cleaver was unable to positively identify him.

At least the Post reported the accusation as an accusation; the AP reported it as fact.

There's an eye-opener for liberals in this story: James Clyburn of South Carolina had gone half a century without hearing a racial epithet! Why did anyone ever think we needed to elect Obama to prove our non-racist bona fides?

Alcee Hastings was impeached for corruption and booted from his federal judgeship. He's a key actor on the Rules Committee and a leader in the Democratic caucus. His unethical practices do more to delegitimate the group of which he is a high-profile leader than the execrable racism of one nut who may be an unhinged bastard on the protest side or may be an egregiously underhanded counterprotestor. Did the guy dropping the n-bomb happen to look like a scrawny bald little techno musician?

All we have is the word of CBC members. I need a bit more than "a pol said it happened" for me to buy it. They proudly have an impeached judge as a member and had no problem with Jefferson as a member. They don't have a solid track record.

The tea party is straight, old, and white. Sure they can be "nice" - if you happen to be white and straight. But if you're gay they will call you "faggot" and if you're black they'll use the N word.

Meade is a straight, white, male. How the hell would he know whether or not the people he was with were homophobic or racist?

As a gay male, I happen to know that 70% of white, old people are homophobic. That's just from personal experience. You can also see that in poll results as well. I can't comment on whether they are racist or not. You'll have to ask minorities about that.

I was there, too, and I didn't hear any nasty words of any kind. No N's, F's, AH's, B's, or even sh*t (amazing with the number of people from the South in the crowd--where that is really not a curse word, unless maybe when spoken in 2 or more syllables). I think one of the speakers did say "damn" once. There were speakers of various ethnic groups--all of whom were warmly welcomed. Of course we were angry--why else would we have been there? Our rights are being taken away, and they are going to ruin the health care process in this country. If anything, when I got there at 11, I thought the crowd was too subdued, and mentioned to my companions that the organizers needed some better cheerleaders. Things got a lot peppier when the official part started at 12. It was an amazing event. It's the first time I've ever gone to a protest, so I don't know what others are like, but this one was clean, polite, but determined to get the attention of those goof balls in Congress.

Hey downtownload, you dumbfuck of a homo, did it ever occur to you that the more you show your naked hatred of "straights" the more it will be returned? It is good, profoundly good that normal America is getting it full in the face from all the marginal shits, it's a lesson that will be well and truly learned and never forgotten. A tidal wave coming your way in November, fagellah.

Look, I'm sorry, but given the significance of what the Democrats intend to do, I don't care if some moron did say something stupid, racist or homophobic.

Kensington, have you no sense of priorities? Some white person, possibly male, heterosexual, or conceivably even a NASCAR fan, is alleged to have yelled out rude and stupid things at a CBC member (or elsewhere, at Barney Frank). It will be a betrayal of everything America stands for if this atrocity isn't reported on the main pages of major newspapers, and run every fifteen minutes on cable news channels, for at least two weeks*. Your implication that some trivial flaws in Obamacare merit more attention than this enormity is just another sad example of how dumbed-down, sensation-seeking, and brainwashed the American people are.

*with regular updates, until it turns out that it never happened, in which case the whole thing is down the memory hole.

DTL, the group I was part of averaged about 37. I don't know what sexual attitudes have to do with this discussion. I've never heard it come up. If anything, gays are potentially more vulnerable than the average person to the negative effects that will be caused by drastic changes in the way health services are provided.

This attitude is EXACTLY why your movement will never reach the mainstream. This is EXACTLY why your movement will have trouble attracting people who are Latino or gay, or anyone who is a little different (you're not getting any blacks while Obama is in office).

If the point of the movement is just to let off steam, then you're right, it doesn't matter if people use slurs. But, if the point of the movement is to inspire enough Americans to come out and oppose the Dems, then this is a step backwards. There are many, many, conservatives who would be appalled at the idea of shouting a racial slur at a member of Congress. Those people would never want to be a part of a group that says, “so what if some idiot said a bad word.”

I think Pelosi is a little nuts. If was discussing her politics and someone called her the C-word (not to her face, but just to me) I would be taken aback. Maybe you and Meade keep rougher company than me and are used to people using slurs so you can say “so what.”

I suspect that the tea party has no interest in attracting people who don't look like you and Mead. This is why the TPM will continue to operate on the fringes of politics (i.e. no governors, no big city mayors, no senators etc.).

The Republicans are the big winners here. They can look reasonable by opposing health care, because the alternative is the Tea Party.

I am familiar with it, from the Bush administration. Everyone who opposed the Iraq war was a commie pinko stooge for ANSWER. There are people commenting on this blog that held that view, but have conveniently and recently discovered nuance.

They don't believe they're suffering from Obama Deeeeerangement Syndrome, either, despite using BDS to shut down any discussion of that administration's issues.

I wonder if they'll remember any of this when the GOP has a majority representation sometime in the future. It will probably sound pretty funny to them if some liberal claims the government has been stolen, stolen! and we have to take it back, by force, there will be blood, and blah blah blah.

At this point, anyone who doubts the true motivation behind these "Tea Party" rallies is delusional. For many it is only a way to legitimize their racism and homophobia.

If, after all that has transpired in the last year, you don't seriously believe that these people are capable of spitting on an African-American congressman or screaming racial and homophobic slurs, you need to be evaluated.

I am skeptical of the CBC members' reports for the simple reason that I doubt ANY congressmen went to the demonstration. My bet is they stayed as far away as they could, whether they were members of the CBC or the friendliest of NO-voters. F

So what if some idiot said a bad word? That's a trivial distraction compared to the power they are about to exercise in the face of such strong opposition to what they are about to do.

Funny, the same thing could have been said about people who strongly opposed the War in Iraq, who organized much bigger protests than the one yesterday. But we didn't see conservatives caring much about that when they went all-in for that one.

In any case, the next time you hear someone asking why minorities and gay people don't generally vote for Republicans, consider this little incident, and the rationalizations offered in response to it.

All we have is the word of CBC members. I need a bit more than "a pol said it happened" for me to buy it.

Yep, and these are the people who think that referencing a "black hole" is racist. Devil's food cake is racist. The word niggardly is racist. If you look cross-eyed at them is it racist.

Being in the BLACK financially is obviously racist, since this bill will assure that we are in the RED forever.

EVERYTHING is racist. So I really don't believe them and if it was true that a person or two threw out a racist epithet....so fucking what?

In St Louis if you are black and disagree with SEIU on health care reform you get the crap beat out of you....but that ISN'T racist...is it? Of course not....other blacks or liberals cannot possibly be racist can they.

Maybe we should just call them (Congress) what they are pigs, traitors, backstabbing weasels.

As Uncle Saul noted, any lie in the service of the cause is good. The post Ann did about how the decline of modern fiction ties in with a lack of faith in Freudian analysis seems to come a cropper every time some Lefty like dtl talks about hate. I believe the good doctor called it projection.

Oh come on, the term "teabagger" is meant as an insult and yet the left throws it around all the time. I doubt if this happened, my understanding is that there is actual video out there that refutes this claim. It could be that the Democrats planted someone too. When you get big movements like this there will always be people who say something offensive.

The reason minorities do not vote for Republicans might also be because they have been indoctrinate by demagogues into supporting people who claim to represent them but in fact use them for their own political purposes.

I have seen some ugly stuff during the anti war demonstrations, downright nasty and obscene. And when Kenye West announced that Bush hated black people, that was not exactly based on policy differences, it was racism plain and simple.

I have seen plenty of pictures of crowds with all sorts of people. Glenn Reynolds at Instapundit has run several such pics for months now and there are all sorts of people at these rallies. Besides, considering the efforts on the part of socalled progressives to use identity politics to their advantage, why should they care if there is diversity? Is there diversity in the black caucus or the hispanic caucus? When Nancy Pelosi dragged all the women Democrats to a meeting was that inclusive?

Somefeller, can you provide any evidence that this happened? I mean, besides the word of a racist group.

The fact that you consider Congressmen like John Lewis to be a member of "a racist group" tells me all I need to know about you, your inclinations on these sorts of issues, and your intellectual honesty (and capacity, for that matter). So that's all the response you deserve from me. And you can click the links provided on this blog and all over the internet (Google is your friend) to research the issue, though as I mentioned above, I doubt you have much concern over the underlying facts.

Oh Republican, please. Do you honestly think that proves anything one way or the other? You're being just as bad as you think the other side is.

Since the election of a black man as president, I have basically been pretty pleased with everyone's reactions. I don't see a lot of racism against him. Maybe there is, but I don't see it.

But I must say, and I don't usually feel like this, I did feel for some of those members of the CBC walking past a large group of white people shouting at them. Yes, they can take it, but I imagine it must have been more traumatic for some of them than others given events they participated in during the 60s in Selma. Anger about health care is NOT the same thing as anger (and violence) about a change in laws as pertaining to enfranchisement, but still, just the experience must have brought back some memories.

Interesting that DTL says he is constantly rejected due to his gayness but the other self identified gay people who comment here don't appear to have that problem. Could it be that so many people DTL comes in contact with reject him for reasons that have nothing to do with his sexual orientation?

Hey downtownload, you dumbfuck of a homo, did it ever occur to you that the more you show your naked hatred of "straights" the more it will be returned? It is good, profoundly good that normal America is getting it full in the face from all the marginal shits, it's a lesson that will be well and truly learned and never forgotten. A tidal wave coming your way in November, fagellah.

My point about 70% of white males being homophobes is obviously wrong. It's about 90%. At least among Althouse's readers.

Oh come on. Look at the thieves in that group. And Barney Frank? The man is a crook. The thing that amazes me is the hypocricy and the moral indignation on the part of people who think that someone might have yelled something at one of these socalled public servants. I doubt that it happened, but you can not blame the bad behavior of a one or two on the whole group. That is in and of itself the same kind of racism or snobbery or whatever that progressives are always whining about. It is just ridiculous. By large margins the American people do not want this bill. By large margins the American people do not like or respect or support this Congress...they are not all racists.

BTW, teabagger is an insult and an obscenity and I don't recall many liberals getting upset about their own using that term to describe people they do not even know.

I absolutely believe it proves nobody in the crowd hurled racial slurs. The video picks up as CBC meets up on the edge of the crowd, and follows them all the way through it. Chants of "Kill the Bill" are the only thing heard.

And there were plenty of videos taken by the opposition. Where are they, proving the allegations?

Playing phony race cards doesn't help the side that's already trying to dirty deal.

Said it before, say it again. It was a big lie. Lewis is know for fabrications- getting beat up on a bridge to now where, being called names, etc. As for the spitting- who cares.

Leftists have done this and worse for forty five years. Throwing feces and urine, flag burning, spitting, rioting, lynching people in effigy, etc. It is considered good form when they do it. It is considered art, street theater, and free expression.

I just love the hypocrisy of the left. It makes me want to throw shoes at Democrats and make pinatas out of them.

By large margins the American people do not like or respect or support this Congress...they are not all racists.

I didn't say they were, or that all or most of the people protesting were racists. But it sure looks like a portion of them were, and a fair amount of people want to make excuses for them or falsely deny their existence. And incidentally, while the term "Obamacare" isn't popular (and I myself would fall into the category of people who think passage of this bill hasn't been handled well), the individual components of the bill do poll well. So we'll see about how unpopular this bill is, by virtue of whether it's later repealed if passed.

BTW, teabagger is an insult and an obscenity and I don't recall many liberals getting upset about their own using that term to describe people they do not even know.

If you think "teabagger" is an insult that's remotely on the same level as the n-word, you are the one with the problem, and are an example of the issue I mentioned in an earlier comment. But keep up with those outreach efforts.

This attitude is EXACTLY why your movement will never reach the mainstream...

...Those people would never want to be a part of a group that says, “so what if some idiot said a bad word.”

Because pouring enormous amounts of time and energy into policing the fringe and groveling and cringing and conducting "struggle sessions" every time some disingenuous dirtbag squeals "racist!" has just been so productive. Notice all the lefties donning hair shirts in response to any of the numberless incidents of "one of theirs" thugging out? No, me neither. Your "high ground" is a sinkhole.

So disappointing Althouse, I expect this from your teabagging followers here but not from you. If the Capitol Police are having to escort black lawmakers from the crowds, then I would probably at least give the Capitol Police the benefit of the doubt that it was a unusually hostile environment. Of course, Meade found it find and dandy, he didn't look like an outside agitator. But put your head in the sand if you'd like.

I was there yesterday and did not hear a single racist epithet. In fact, people seemed to try to bend over backwards to avoid even innocuous words and phrases that could be built up to anything racist by the other side. Hence the woman I saw answering a question with "Oh, no. I support Obama. I don't support socialism." Because we all know that any time you don't support Obama, well... that just makes you a racist.

I did not say calling someone a n*igger and calling someone a teabagger were the same thing. The point is that there are hundreds of thousands of people who have been part of the Tea Party movement who did not call anyone anything. And I am not even sure this happened at all.

Whereas, the left in its sanctimony and hypocricy made a point of using an obscene slur to label and entire movement and did not even feel a little bit embarrassed by that.

Well, since I've been challenged to present evidence that conservatives aren't especially concerned with racism against black people (I would argue that this post qualifies, but let's grant Ann's phony disassociation from conservatism), I'll have to go all the way back to... Friday, when John Hinderaker, a leading conservative commentator in anyone's estimation, listed Nelson Mandela as the second most-overrated man of the 20th century. Who was the most overrated? Why Ghandi, of course. The man whose commitment to non-violent protest of oppression was a model and inspiration for the civil rights movement.

These choices for the most overrated men of the 20th century are curious to say the least for someone who considers institutionalized discrimination to have been a problem in the 20th century (let alone the 21st).

Also, and this is really a secondary point, his previous declaration that the greatest athlete in any team sport in modern times was Bobby Orr... well let's just say it sounds like the kind of thing my grandfather would say (wink wink).

Hinderaker a racist? Oh please. The man is not a racist, he just honestly thought that Mandela and Gandhi were over rated. I am not even saying that I agree with him, but you inference is that since these people are not white, any criticism is racist. That is racist in and of itself.

BTW, I had to listen to Condi Rice called an oreo too many times to think there is not racism on the left.

This is hilarious to see how worn out and frayed the racism card you lefties are playing. And we always knew it would come to this as your messiah sinks deeper in the polls. He was never cut out for this job and we knew it the whole time. It's all you got, isn't it? So sad.

Catherine, actually, civil rights marches had a lot of white faces. Its just some of the supporters, such as Charlton Heston or Charles Pickering, became "racists" later for not doing what Dems wanted.

danielle said..."Ann writes: 'So what if some idiot said a bad word?' so hurling racial epithets and SPITTING at someone is what constitutes a bad word ? I think the implied aggression and the personal intimidation is a lot more than just a bad word."

You edited out the part where I said "the kind real ugliness or violence that should be condemned." What's the deal with that?

Do Democrats lie? Other than when their lips are moving or their fingers are typing, I mean?

Let's see what WaPo columnist (and village idiot) Dana Milbank has to say in this morning's page 2.

"Outside it got downright ugly as several thousand Tea Party activists staged a rally and then stormed (emphasis mine) House office buildings, heckling lawmakers they found inside." (N.B., Reliable estimates say 25,000 or perhaps even more, twenty-five being a bit more than "several," but as a WaPo columnist one cannot expect Milbank to be able to do elementary arithmetic.)

Milbank goes on to repeat the claim from Andre Carson and John Lewis that they were the recipients of "a racial slur" and later the TPM claim that Barney Frank was the recipient of a "homophobic insult."

Milbank goes on to write that "Even without the slurs, the demonstrators were plenty menancing, standing on the lawn between the House chamber and the House office buildings, chanting 'Kill the Bill' and waving signs with such messages as 'Buck Ofama.'"

(So a piece of advice to you, Professor Althouse. Please keep "menancing Meade" home next time because he and his kind give legislators a fit of the vapors.)

But Milbank gives himself away when he quotes majority whip Jim Clyburn as saying that he "hadn't heard such talk since the civil rights movement."

Yep, it must be pretty shattering to the lefties in Congress to be on the receiving end of a large demonstration, the homemade signs, the chants. For the second time in forty years the government finds itself at war with the people it governs. Professor, you might want to consider adding "Obama is like LBJ" and "Obama is like Nixon tags." Just sayin'

This "incident" is the headline of the Sunday paper here in little old Beaufort, S.C.

Who knows what happened, if anything happened at all. We never will know, probably. The main point is that it's not in the least indicative of the nature of the protest, but the lazy media will play an ambiguous story because it's too witless to do anything else.

If one of the anti bill protesters said this, it's ugly--especially when directed against John Lewis. Contrary to some of the ignorant posts in these comments, John Lewis was nearly beaten to death by bigots. Fortunately those times are long gone, even (especially) here in the small town south.

Interestingly, Republican leaders are not denying that such comments were made, they are just saying that such comments were wrong and that the Tea Partiers shouldn't be judged by a few bad apples. That is, the ones that aren't saying that while such things may have happened, they were just an example of people getting a little agitated.

That's not much in the way of denials. Oh, and by the way, videos showing Tea Partiers on good behavior in one time and place don't disprove the claims of other, multiple witnesses elsewhere.

Having read the comments of many Althouse fans here over the years, the accounts are entirely believable.

Here is an account from a legislative aide (which I probably put in the wrong post above). This people are one drool away from a loogie:

" [I]t was ugly up here today. A complete disrespect for the people and institutions. The well-reported racial slurs and attacks on Barney Frank's sexuality, but also the little things. At 9am some Tea Partiers were putting a paper placard above a Member's name outside his door that said "I am stupid" and taking a photo. I shook my head at the disrespect and after I turned the corner, yelled at my back was, "You don't agree? Then you are, too."

Or at lunch when my colleague was "boxed out" from the Coke machine by a group of Tea Partiers who used their bodies to keep him from buying a Coke.

Or when I left today and the Capitol grounds were littered w/ trash and discarded protest signs.

Unfortunately I have more stories like that, but you get the idea.... I wonder if I'm watching the death throes of Movement Conservatism up close and personal.

Conservatism will never die (nor should it) and arguably the Democratic plan is conservative in the little c sense by keeping and enriching all the entrenched players.

But Movement Conservatism is definitely dying. You know the kind that thinks a .07 increase in the Medicare tax for those making over 100k ruins America's competitiveness but double-digit inflation in health care costs doesn't. Or 400Billion in tax cuts and another 300 billion investments in infrastructure is something to rally against rather than a major legislative victory.

Or the Movement Conservatism that blows a gasket because the cost of two wars are accounted for rather than being done off-budget. Or, hell, the Movement Conservatism that objects to PAY-GO legislation.

I wonder if I was watching people's worldviews breakdown before their eyes. And they had nothing left but to name call, spit and litter as a form of futile and immature protest."

There is no explanation, Alpha. It was a noisy crowd. There is no assurance that the crowd consisted only of anti-bill protestors. The congress critters could be lying (possible, but unlikely), mistaken (quite possible), uncertain but making a partisan point, or maybe they heard what they say they heard. If so, does anyone know who said it? You don't. I don't. John Lewis does not.

If there were scores or hundreds of such shouts throughout the city, I would take it seriously. This is just a media event.

He just doesn't like being the recipient of a protest. He assumed that protests would always and forever be from the left and directed at Republicans. It is breaking that feeble little thing he jokingly calls a brain.

Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, and Barack Obama are at war with their own citizens, and Tim Ryan is a footsoldier in that war.

Cleaver released a statement late Saturday saying he, too, was called the "n" word as he walked to the Capitol for a vote and that he was spat on by one protester who was arrested by U.S. Capitol Police. Cleaver declined to press charges against the man, the statement said.

Is that enough proof for you all who wanted to imply that people were lying and underhandedly playing the race card, and pretending to be victims? You said shame on them. Frankly, I think you should be the ones who are ashamed.

And this, I'd say, summarizes what many of us without husbands who'd ever consider going to a Tea Party rally (and thus uncritically restate his account on it) tend to believe about it:

'Frank, who said he rarely hears such slurs anymore, said the health care issue has become "the proxy for a lot of other sentiments. A lot of which are perfectly reasonable but some of which are kind of ugly. ... People out here today on the whole were, many of them, were hateful and abusive."

The reports on the offensive comments don't prevent me from hearing your/their points; but I do find the offensive comments representative of some of the underlying gripes of some subset of the members .... and I find posts like this who claim things like 'the people at yesterday's protest were unusually nice and friendly and well-behaved' equally ridiculous !

Ann, you blog this uncritically, like its a FACT because it came from your husband ... you open this post pushing the idea that the offender could be an adversary posing as a member; you say that protesters should be angry and allowed to be uncivil and clearly they are (and yet you believe that the people were unusually well behaved .. ?), and you accuse CBC member of 'Playing the race card for nothing? Shame!' ...

look. we all know the MSM has a view. but it seems like you've tended too far in the other direction, and are unfairly minimizing or perhaps just refusing to see these more insidious elements and undertones and underlying motivations that some of the Tea Partiers have.

Not that it justifies anything but blacks call each other the N word all the time but I'll guarantee that Tea Parties never throw the teabagging word at each other. The fact that the MSM would be emphasizing the slur angle when all posted video shows it didn't happen is just another reason they are held in such low regard.

I just posted numerous photos of racism at tea party events. It is well-documented.

I don't think all TPers are racist. But it is clear that it has been a continuing feature, which they have addressed only through denial of the sort Ann Althouse exhibits here, which is a form of complicity.

And we see more denial from commenters here who cannot bring themselves to criticize the behavior.

Didn't you all get the memo? Dissent from any of Obama's policies is racist. Which is why you aren't hearing thing one about the war in Afghanistan and Iraq any more. And once it was clear Obama wasn't going to close Guantanamo and send those poor kidnapped Muslims home, you stopped hearing about that too.

Also, you obviously want poor black children to all die from diabetes. For shame! Now the likes of Alpha Liberal (the brave, brave troll who comments under his real name) won't invite you to his parties. I hope you're all happy now.

For this accusation to be made and the event not caught on video in the most heavily covered issue of the year makes the charge highly questionable. Given the Demoncratic lies, like the ones Alpha repeats after your comment, involving racism, it's more reasonable to expect this is another Demoncratic lie.

The MSM and Demoncrats lost credibility long ago. Remember the MSM uproar of a man with a gun at a Tea Party protest where they conveniently tried to hide the fact that the man was black? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UYKQJ4-N7LI

Alpha and the Demons want to keep the blacks and other minorities dependent on the teat of liberal programs so they can get their vote and push their totalitarian agendas. That's real racism.

JFK long ago observed that where there's smoke, there's usually a smoke making machine. I submit that a group of black Congressmen moved en masse past a crowd of angry white demonstrators not because that was the only way to get from point A to point B, but because that was the route that they chose. The optics do hark back to old civil right demonstrations, but the optics are deceiving and manipulative. The protestors are not yelling at them because they are black but because of their stand on the health care plan. The shouts of the crowd are hostile but in no way racist.....If you can find a legitimate protestor who is, indeed, racist, this will prove not that the demonstration was racist but that you, yourself, wish to stereotype the crowd by the behavior of its worst member. This is called profiling. By advancing this argument, you demonstrate your own bigotry. Bigotry is not always directed towards the most vulnerable members of society. It is sometimes directed toward groups that the left wishes to make the most vulnerable. (See kulaks in the USSR, ethnic Chinese in Vietnam, ethnic Japanese in the USA, bourgeoise in Cuba, et al.).... I agree that the term tea-bagger is not so hateful as the n-word, but it is the most insulting and derisive word (other than racist) that the left can find. The facile way that the left and members of the media use this word and always with a knowing smirk justifies every suspicion that tea partiers have about them.

So let's look at the state of play, based on the articles linked above. On one side we have multiple reports from credible witnesses of racial / homophobic incidents, detention of one person for spitting on a Congressman (a Congressman who was nice enough to not press charges), and a general lack of any denial of the facts of the foregoing claims by key GOP leaders.

On the other side, we have conspiracy theories, fulmination, logical fallacies, and a single video of Tea Partiers behaving decently in one short moment of time and space. Oh, all that and the fact that sometimes some African-Americans use the n-word from time to time.

Alpha Liberal: Look, why can't you understand that all conservatives are racists who want to fuck the poor? Why do you associate with us on this blog since you clearly are not going to convince us that we are what we already know we are. You are a bit slow if you don't get that basic point. Plus, we don't know anything about economics. Other than fucking the poor out of their money. Their tiny bit of money.

I would add that none of the clearly documented examples of racism at Tea Party events by many (not all, Michael, as I've said repeatedly) are not disavowed, criticized or denounced by Althouse or the right wing extremists.

Racism is a vile thing and the overwhleming response from Althouse and conservatives is to simply try to discredit any effort to show racism underway.

I already responded in the last thread on this, here: https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=6329595&postID=4127520719543958729&page=1&token=1269195460641_AIe9_BE4_qQpzHcQ8JAGMPVygmgEnZ6G5I_CoV8UExHrQifv2kN7lGsls680QbmroRL4evHcl_4iu4oQla-raJALvdlPh4tF76GELk4tTW2KK_vJUwnjW3f6ERdao81nHV-2MUWEVvkgoxszL01IxksA7i6WekSsh-BL5QqOhHiIcdoE5rXApZ9u4oUXLugg0YXX44TAWxxkic6mhSSfyPlceFsfkZNHHQeHCZ8_Py2pTyD0scjxjDAXd3QBQ3YigGyLNN28qzeH

I will just add this. I am sick of the liberal assumption that opposition to obamacare is automatically racist. if anything, this is as close to a controlled experiment as you are likely to see in politics. in 1993 we rose up against bill clinton's health care and it didn't even come to a vote. obama bring it up, and he is razor close to passing it. So where is the unequal treatment?

"I submit that a group of black Congressmen moved en masse past a crowd of angry white demonstrators not because that was the only way to get from point A to point B, but because that was the route that they chose."

So they were supposed to sneak into the Capitol building? Because they are African American?

the best part is right wing blogs posted this one minute long video of the black dude walking through the protesters, and because no one said nigger in that one video they believe it didn't happen, or that if it did happen it was definitely a leftist infiltrator

When I read that, Alpha, I had to pause because the tears of joy were welling out of my eyes, pooling in my glasses, and threatening to short out my keyboard as they fell.

I feel redeemed.

What a second. I'm an atheist, so I can't be redeemed.

Too bad.

It might shock you, Alpha, but I actually followed the four links you provided. The first example, with a man who can't even spell the "n-word" right, certainly isn't representative of the professional-class individuals who are the backbone of the Tea Party movement. The large, professionally-printed sign in the second is a giveaway -- except for the Gadsen flags, nearly all signs in photos of Tea Party events are handmade. You're looking at a moby, Alpha, and too caught up in your narrative to catch it. (Or perhaps you're just stupid, I don't know.)

The witch doctor photoshop, with its suggestion that Obamacare is voodoo medicine, is very funny, and I thank you for the link. It makes a good point in a humorous fashion.

The last photo? You have to really stretch the definition of the term "racist" to find racism in it.

Be nice if you grew up, Alpha. Not everybody disagrees with you just because they're racists. Maybe it's you who are wrong? Have you considered that? Because we have!

Now go back to the top of the comments and reread what Henry posted. The shoe maybe pinches when it's on your foot, but sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander.

I have posted numerous photos of racism at Tea Party rallies. You and your ilk have ignored them while making excuses.

If you won't even acknowledge that posters of Obama as a witch doctor with a bone in his nose is racism you won't acknowledge that cries of "N****R" are racism. You will just make more excuses and apologies and denials.

damikesc, I've already stated that you obviously aren't someone worthy of my time, and you've done nothing since then to change that impression. But I'll break that little rule just this once and suggest that you click through the links that I mentioned, and you can see who the sources are, namely people like Congressman John Lewis and others who have a lot more credibility than someone like you will ever have. I realize that to a dumb prole like you, if it didn't happen on video it didn't exist, but the rest of us have a bit more judgment than that.

I don't know why Alpha Liberal haunts this website if it's so full of disgusting racist fascists that it's making him sick. I generally avoid websites devoted to things that make me sick -- you know, the Twilight books, people who want to have sex with their pets, the Democratic party, stuff like that. I find that it keeps my blood pressure level.

Please!! I am a conservative, black and I do not believe hole heartedly in this bill. BUT, I do not believe in the Tea Party rhetoric and to me, personally there possibly was epithets hurled at the Black Caucus. In my part of the town you state those words and you'll get knocked out. We as a country focus too much on political nightmares and not on the American experience as a whole. Now I must say that, although no one on the republican side is admitting it, in fear of being labeled racist, have become more active than ever when Obama, who by the way is half white as well, became President. I watch and love Glenn Beck, and Rush Limbaugh! I also watch Fox. But even they are becoming a bit bias. Like I said I am black, I believe in make it on your own and little or no government. But this antic in society, with the Tea Party movement is sinking its teeth into quicksand and is likely to never resurface as strongly, for a few more months, or years when this bill is passed. We need to srop thinking about a party and begin thinking about the people in this country as a whole. Until I see there is real change, I believe any and everyone are playing the race card: Black and White!!

"Cleaver released a statement late Saturday saying he, too, was called the "n" word as he walked to the Capitol for a vote and that he was spat on by one protester who was arrested by U.S. Capitol Police. Cleaver declined to press charges against the man, the statement said."

Kristie Greco, spokeswoman for Democratic Whip Jim Clyburn, D-S.C., said a protester spit on Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, D-Mo., who is black and said police escorted the lawmakers into the Capitol. Cleaver's office said he would decline to press charges, but Sgt. Kimberly Schneider of the U.S. Capitol Police said in an e-mail later: "We did not make any arrests today."

AlphaLiberal you are a race baiter.. that makes you a racist in my book.

Definitions of Race baiter on the Web:Race baiting is the use of racially derisive language, actions or other forms of communication, to anger, intimidate or incite a person or groups of people, or to make those persons behave in ways that are inimical, and often harmful to their personal or group interests.

Well, there you have it, folks. Tossed off by a supposed "liberal" commenter without a hint of irony, only hostility.

Ah, but you've got something wrong there. I'm a paid-up member of Generation X. I can't do anything without a hint of irony in it, even if I wanted to. Such is the curse of my generation. But we all have our crosses to bear.

Alpha Liberal: We are trying to have a Klan rally here on Althouse and devise new ways to steal from the poor and keep them from healthcare. Why do you keep calling us racists when it is clear that all conservatives are racists. Every liberal knows that, the press knows that, we know that. We were tying to have a secret meeting, like we have every day, where we discuss each and every black person and decide how we are going to fuck them up for the day.

Wrong question. You should be asking why the "right" devolves to racism with such ease. Are you trying to say one brand of hate speech is fine, but you take exception to another? Smells seriously like hypocrisy there.

The video posted here was a piece of theatre, designed to show black folks confronted by an angry, white mob. It's an American icon.

And, of course, the usual suspects fell for it, as they were intended to.

What I see are, first, American citizens vociferously protesting, in person, to Members of Congress. Tell me, what's wrong with that? No respect and decorum? When, mayhep, did the American Congress become the House of Lords?

The other thing I see, from a class perspective, are well-connected, well-dressed, and well-to-do politicians confronted by protesters, who appear to be, on average, from the lower middle classes.

The fact that the ones being protested against are black is a happy circumstance to disguise the fact that this bloated, incoherent health care bill won't save a penny, and, in fact benefit the current health care plutocrats at the expense of the middle class, whom you see represented in all their outrage.

Being black doesn't mean you aren't in the pocket of plutocrats, i.e., all the "players" in the health care "industry.". It just means that white people cannot call you on it.

Like Meade - I was there. The anger was palpable, but I saw smiles, laughter, spontaneous singing of "God Bless America" ... And that CBC group walk both from the office building to the Capitol and then back from the Capitol to the office building. I'm not really thinking they felt all that intimidated. They - along with every other Congressman walking out in the open yesterday instead of the tunnel - were greeted as heroes if they were voting No and with booing and "Kill The Bill" if a Yes.

We all stayed behind our boundary lines set up by the Capitol Police like good little protesters.